The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-06-15
FoR THE CLARIos.l
SOME PERSONAL SKETCHES
Of the Old Monticello Bar, and Other
Persons Of That Vlcinage-
NUMBER II.
NUMBER II.
WILLIAM VANNERSON.

VINO In the midst OF the crowd, keeps
| with perfect sweetness the serenity of
| solitude" If this be true there is many
great man who never has the reputa-
| ton of greatness.
There are men who are distinguished
without being great in any line of
| thought or Acknowledgements be-
cause differing in mind, character, and
conduct, from all other men of ones
aceuaintance-from all other men of
whom one has read, or heard or fancied
being so notably distinct, that whatso-
ever he is known to be doing, or about
| to do, becomes from that fact subject
of curious interest. Such among the
men of his day was William Vannerson,
lawyer celebrated through a long
career in South Mississippi.
he began his professional career in
this State at Natchez and continued un-
interruptedly at the bar for more than
sixty years. His origin was involved
in some mystery. He claimed Virginia
as his native State, but when he was
born, how or by whom he was brought
up and educated, if educated at all, no
one apparently knew. If he was Vir-
ginian he must have been of humble
| origin, or at least did not belong to any
of the f. +. V's, since the annals of the
Old Dominion will be searched in vain
for his name. | have heard him say
that he studied law in Petersburg, and
that, while so engaged, he attended at
Richmond the great trial of Aaron
Burr, at which Marshall presided, and
that he stood in the crowded court room
by the side of young Winfield Scott
| VIXEN William Writ, with his gorgeous
| rhetoric, drew the enchanting picture of
Blennerhasset's Island in the Ohio. His
age was always problem. Sparks, who
wrote a book on Mississippi and the
South, declared when Vannerson was in
active career, that he was the very
Oldest man then living of whom he had
any knowledge. Three generations of
courthouse habitues saw him at the
bar in full mental and physical vigor,
seeming not young and yet not old.
No one of his contemporaries here knew
him as boy or youth; nor could one
without strong effort of the imSgina-
| ton, conceive that he had passed
through those stages of existence. 1t
might be said that he was without
beginning of days. From the first
knowledge of him, he appeared tall,
erect figure, with a crown of beautiful
white hair, with a style OF dress, rich in
material. and bordering on foppish-
ness. He wore ruffles on wrists and
breast for a quarter of century after
| fashion had discarded them.
The writer first met him at Monticello
forty years ago. Then past the merid-
| ian of life, he was still active and
graceful, with an air of studied elegance,
| and, owing to his good health and
robust constitution, he seemed, and in
fact was, in the prime and vigor of
| manhood.
His contemporaries at the Natchez
bar at different times, were men of power
| and distinction, some of whom achieved
national regulations. In the zenith of
professional triumph were Griffith,
Shields, r. J. Walker, Quitman, Prem
tiss, Montgomery, Boyd, Winchester,
McMurran, Huston, Hewitt, Mellen,
| found at Monticello, on his removal
there in 1914, attending the Vice-Chan-
cery and Circuit Courts, did not have
reputation so great as that of the Nat
| chez bar, but in native intellect and
even learning, they were probably equal
to their more eminent brothers on the
banks of the Mississippi. Over the
Vice-C -Chancery Court presided that ac-
complished jurist, James NJ. Smiley, end
| Buckner Harris was Circuit Judge. At
| the bar were the gifted brothers, w. L.
and Robert Harris, the latter dying In
the morning of a life that gave brilliant
promise of success, Arthur Smith, L. :.
Swift, d. w. Hurst, Hiram Cassidy, E.
G.. Peyton, Benjamin King, E. J. Goode,
John T. Lamkin, John +. McNair, w.
A Stone, j. NJ. Ellis, q. G. Buckley,
Elias Stafford, Henry Sturges, H. F.
johnson, J. d. Freeman, Jacob f..
Foute, E. L. Bowen and others.
| Vannerson was from the start fight
| ing LAWYER. He believed that reputa-
ton for courage and readiness to engage,
/ if necessary, in a knock-down in his
own behalf and that of his clients, essen
tial to success at the bar, and in this he
was more than half right. He was en-
dowed with the truest pluck and bore
himself well in all hostile encounters.
His fights would have achieved for him
much notoriety, with no other claim to
| distinction. There was always some
thing in them that took them out OF the
common role. BY way of illustration: !:
one of his first fights at an early day in
the court yard at Natehezs furnished
merriment for generation. very soon
in the combat Vannerson showed supe-
rior strength and resources. After a
few rounds his antagonist sought to
escape. Vannerson grasped him by the
coat collar, but the coat came OH. He
clutched the cravat, and that slipped its
tie: he seized the shirt and that came
off. "I'll hold you by something that
grows on you" exclaimed the batfied
combatant, igrasping his antagonists
hair. Strange to say the man wore a
wig from which his bare poll slipped
with smooth velocity" while its owner,
thus stripped, fell or sprang into deep
ditch or pit, near the yard fence and
disappeared from view. At this last
| miscarriage, Vannerson's face took mo-
mentarily the expression of amazement
and fear, but quickly changed. II have
fought wizard and have his scalp!'
cried the victor. The effect of the scene
on the bystanders may be easily i'm
agined.
To the system of civil Jurisprudence,
with its difficult intricacies, Vannerson
did not direct his study. The criminal
law, with its easily mastered elements
afforded a more attractive field for The
display of his showy abilities. Of books
| in general he knew but little. He was
not versed in the classics, nor was be
even a good English scholar, and he
hardly knew the meaning of belle lettres
In fact the word "smattering" expresses
with accuracy the extent of his acquire
ments. Yet he had the peculiar faculty
of appearing to be learned, without
learning, and wise, without wisdom
He had picked up so many odds ane
ends of information on all subjects-st
many historical illusions, so many LatiI
law maxims, so many poetical quota
tions, and had 80 carefully stored then
away in his capacious memory, cut ane
ldried, ready for instant use, that casua
Il visitors to the courthouse believed tina
he had read history from Herodiotus Il
lMacaulay. law from Pofendorf to Story
poetry and romance from the Iliad {.
.sEvangeline,' y aLocksly Hall, and tn
+ Heart of Midlothian"
The picture / am attempting to draw
of my old friend, though intended to b
true to life, is not one, / Iapprehend, tina
Q would altogether please him if he coul,
see it, and who can say he will not
He was intensely fond of fattery, whicl
he always took as sincere. Adulation
even of the most extravagant kind, wa
= the feast to which he wished to b
|. | Invited, and he did not care how .oftel
s the invitations came. so long as tn
8 sweet pabulum held out. 1t would no
: suit him, as it did the great Protector
! to be painted with all his defects
4 | because he never would admit that b
. had any defects to paint His sell
3 esteem was inordinate and his vanit